This blog post features the closing speech delivered by the Vice President at the 2025 Luxembourg General Assembly of Humanists International. Reflecting on key decisions, new leadership and the conference theme- “From Awareness to Action: Strengthening Open Societies Through Scientific Literacy” –the Vice President offers gratitude, encouragement and a call to continued action in the face of global challenges.
Roslyn Mould is the Vice President of Humanists International and a long-standing advocate for humanist values across Africa and beyond. She has served as President of the Humanist Association of Ghana and currently leads Accra Atheists, while also holding roles with the West African Humanist Network, the FoRB Leadership Network (UK), and LGBT+ Rights Ghana.
Esteemed delegates, distinguished guests, friends and fellow humanists from around the world, Once again, we bring another successful General Assembly to a close.
The theme of this year´s International Humanist Conference “From Awareness to Action: Strengthening Open Societies Through Scientific Literacy” has been very enlightening and informative especially regarding the inspiring work from our various members.
We have made an important decision as an assembly concerning the balance of voting power of our members, associates and other associates.
We are also pleased with the passage of our Luxembourg Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and human values. In this digital age, a humanist voice speaking on the ethics of AI is a much needed powerful statement and we appreciate Humanists UK for its submission.
Thanks to our Assembly we have moved from Reimagined to a Renewed World Humanist Congress and we look forward to seeing a much more rich and insightful global event moving forward.
A big thank you to all candidates who participated in our Board election. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to our democracy that we have more and more people vying for the positions and we appreciate you all for putting yourselves out there. You are all winners in your own right.
Congratulations to our incoming President, Maggie Ardiente and fellow board members Monica Belițoiu, Nina Fjeldheim, Fraser Sutherland for joining and rejoining the team. Congratulations as well to our new Staff members.
As we bid goodbye to our outgoing President, Andrew Copson, we recognize his amazing achievements during his tenure. I am truly honoured to have served beside you as a Board member and as Vice President in the last 6 years. Through your able leadership, you have not only transformed but catapulted Humanists International into a truly contemporary, global organization with an unprecedented increase in membership and a true reflection of Humanist ideals in the entire structure of the organization such as equality, diversity and inclusivity. Your personality which carries so much warmth and great sense of humor even in the toughest situations, a good listener, your sense of decorum and assertiveness will be missed and it has been an absolute joy learning from you and working with you. Fellow Humanists, may we rise for a big sounding applause to Andrew again please.
May we continue to build on the legacies of past Presidents, Board Members and Member Organizations. I look around this room and I see so much potential that we have as an organization. We need to continue to harness the skills of our members and empower them. I implore Members and Associates to step forward to contribute to the continued success of our organization through our advocacy, FoT report, like, comment, share, etc.
As we acknowledge there is a changing world of anti-scientific rhetoric, fake news, anti-democratic practices, misinformation and disinformation, we need to take action! Ask yourself, “How well does your community, country or region know about Humanism, your group and Humanists International?”, “What have you done about it?”, “What do you plan to do about it?”. Many people know what’s going on with the Catholic Church and other religions than they know about our Humanist movement and our work and that needs to change. I would also like to ask that we challenge ourselves in the pursuit of promoting humanism, science, critical thinking and the defense of human rights even more than ever. As mentioned by one of our speakers at the conference, Clemens Lintschinger yesterday, “People deserve more than comforting illusions” so Let’s put on our thinking caps and creative caps on making the world a better place and as Maggie stated, “We’re not Humanists because it’s easy” so we need to also find a way to be part of the conversation and get a seat at the table and not wait to be invited. In this way, we can strive to be the change we want to see.
This conference has served as a boost of motivation for me and I hope it has for you too. I hope that we move, literally, from awareness straight into action as we drive the message of progressiveness and Humanism in Action.
Thank you to our Staff led by our CEO, Gary for your hard work throughout the year and beyond. The team has continued to impress us with their diligence, creativity and proactiveness.
Our Sincere Gratitude to our host organization, Alliance of Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics Luxembourg (Allianz vun Humanisten, Atheisten an Agnostiker Lëtzebuerg (AHA Luxembourg) for organizing this event in their beautiful country. I have personally enjoyed the free public transportation and It has been an amazing and learned experience.
Looking forward to meeting you all in Ottawa next year for the next World Humanist Congress. Vielen dank, Merci beaucoup, Medaase papaapa
Thank you very much.